Where are my friends?

In a recent post I said something about being at the point in my life where I need to focus a little more on family than friends. Well, I'm kind of taking that back. That's not to say that I'm focusing more on my friends than my family, but more like I'm  going to work on balancing the 2. Recently I've been feeling that ever since I went back to substitute teaching 3-4 days a week, I haven't seen many of my friends. We stopped having as many playdates as we used to and we haven't gone to any in a while. It's kind of like I went to being around 2 kids a day to being around 25-30 a day! Being at home with 2 kids and teaching a classroom full of 25-30 kids both have their challenges. And one main thing that the 2 have in common is that there (for the most part) are no other adults involved.

So what I'm trying to say is that I miss the adult interaction that I've come to get used to by seeing a mommy friend at least once a week before I started working again. I think it is so important for every mom out there to have mommy friends that they can lean on and talk to when needed. But recently I feel like I haven't had the support like I used to. Yes I have some friends that I chat with through text and messenger, but it's been a little bit since I've been able to be face-to-face with another adult that isn't my husband or my mom.

And yes I know, we are 26 days away from Christmas and everyone is super busy. But recently I've had 2 different things set up with a friend and both times the plans got cancelled. It just seems like that's the story of my life. All my life, especially in high school and right after, I would make plans to hangout with someone and then most of the time something would come up and it would get cancelled. But then there was a time in my life where I would make plans with people and we would actually get to follow through with those plans so I got so excited that my plans were actually happening. But recently it's been back at the point where plans get cancelled. Or plans don't even get made but me and the other person just keep saying we are going to make plans and then never do.

Again, I think every mom, especially stay-at-home moms and part-time working moms, need to be able to talk to another adult (outside of their family) in person at least once a week. I'm not asking for someone to spend the whole day with me. Just a few hours or so or even 30 minutes will do! I have a few friends that I talk to through facebook or text every few days and I'm very thankful I have them. But I also wish I could have that one "person" that I can go to for anything because right now I don't feel like I have someone like that.

Time to clean up!

One room in the house that we struggle with keeping clean is the playroom!! Big E is 3 and a half now so she definitely understands what it means to clean up. Now Little E on the other hand, he still just tries to take toys out as soon as you go to put them away. Occasionally he will put toys away when he sees us put them away, but that's very rare.

So since we had a hard time putting all the toys away in the playroom, I decided to go through them and get rid of the ones that weren't played with. There were a lot of tiny toys that we just didn't need. Here is the before and after of one section of the playroom.

 

The other big area of the room that has a lot of toys in it is the stuffed animals bin. My amazing husband built the kids a little stuffed animal zoo type thing and it is great!!! But the kiddos have way to many stuffed animals. I've tried before to get rid of some but there's just so many that have sentimental value so I can't get rid of them. But I went through them yet again and got rid of a full trash bag of them!

 

It doesn't look like that much of a change, but at least I got rid of some of them. Here is another before and after of the playroom. I am very pleased with how it looks and am definitely going to make sure that Big E and Little E clean up after each time they are done playing in it.

 

This Is Us

*Spoiler- make sure you are all caught up on This Is Us before reading, as this post contains some spoilers*

So I don't know about you, but when I first saw a preview for the show This Is Us, I was so excited for this show!!! My hubby and I watched Parenthood on Netflix together and this show looked very similar!! Well, NBC definitely did not disappoint with this show. I look forward to watching it every week. The other week my hubby was away from a Tuesday-Friday, so we had to wait even longer that week to watch that weeks' episode!!

Every week I'm on the edge of my seat and am looking for more clues as to how Jack died. I keep wondering "When will they just tell us already?" Well, for the first time ever, this past week I didn't care one bit that we wouldn't be finding out how he died or even get anymore clues. If you're all caught up on This Is Us, we all know that Kate had a miscarriage. They told us at the very end of an episode and then dived into it deeper the following week, which was last Tuesday's episode.

One in 5 women will have a miscarriage, which is more people than you actually think experience it. The reason we think not that many people experience miscarriages is because it isn't something that is talked about a lot. I personally don't know what this feels like first hand, but I have read many stories of women who have gone through this. I applaud NBC and the writers of the show for discussing this issue. It isn't a happy issue to talk about at all, but I'm sure that this episode has helped some women in some way.

I'll admit, up to this point I've never shed a tear while watching the show. Yes there were tons of other sad parts in the show, but none of them were powerful enough to bring me to tears. I guess being a mother and the fact that I've been pregnant twice before, it just hit me a little harder than the other sad parts it. As I already said, I've never had a miscarriage and there's no way I could ever know what someone who has is feeling, but there's just something about this episode that made me tear up a bit. I can't even begin to imagine how heartbreaking it must be to lose a baby that you've never met before. No matter how long you carry a baby inside you, it is still your baby and it has got to be one of the worst things in the world to lose that before you even get to meet him or her.

Again, I applaud NBC for shedding some light on this issue that is so hard for us to talk about. I hope this episode helped at least one person out there!

30 days!!!!

Can you believe that Christmas will be here in 30 days?? I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving spent with family and ate lots of yummy food!! We went to my aunt's house and spent it with my aunt, uncle, 2 cousins, and grandparents. Then yesterday on Black Friday I stayed in my PJ's until 2:30 in the afternoon and went out with my mom last night. I bought some necklaces from my friend who sells Paparazzi and a LuLaRoe dress to go with my Christmas leggings for my hubby's work Christmas party!! It's a Nicole dress so it was made for me!! I'll be sure to post a picture of me wearing it after we go to my hubby's Christmas party.

Today we went to Sam's Club, like we always seem to do on the weekend. Ever since our new Sam's Club has been open, I don't think a weekend has gone by without a visit there. We don't always go for a ton of things. Sometimes we go just for 1 or 2 things but then end up getting a few extras. Today we mostly went to get a Dyson cordless vacuum that was on sale. I have never been so excited to vacuum!! I'm serious, now that we have this thing, I'm going to vacuum every day! Before all we had was either a big corded vacuum and a small corded vacuum. But with this, you just hang it on the wall to charge when you are done using it and you don't have to worry about any cords!! This whole year I've been all about keeping our house cleaner, and now with us having about one month left of the year, I think we've finally got something that is going to help us do just that!!

So then after Sam's Club we went to Target and got a new tree, some ornaments, and a train for the tree. The train ended up being Little E's favorite purchase of the day! And Big E is obsessed with the new Branch ornament that she picked out!!

Oh, and our Elf on the Shelf has come back to visit us!! Last year Emma didn't name her, so this year she named her Elsa!!

That's all for now. I'll be sure to keep you updated with all of Elsa's adventures!!!

I'm going to sound like a broken record here...

I know...you've heard me say this many times before, everything happens for a reason! But I keep reading, hearing, or experiencing this for myself and I just can't stop talking about it. Just last night I was reading a magazine and I read this article that caught my attention. It was about a woman and her 3-year old daughter that were in a car accident. A woman that was in the car that the first woman hit got a scan done after the accident because she felt some whiplash from the accident. Well, during that scan they found that she had stage 3 lung cancer. If it wouldn't have been for that accident, she would have never gotten that scan done because she never smoked one single cigarette in the 40 years she's been alive.

This story reminds me of someone I know who was diagnosed with a form of leukemia while she was pregnant with her youngest daughter. The kind of leukemia she had causes you to bleed from the inside out, so she is very lucky that they caught it when they did. It is a curable kind of cancer and it may not have been found if she weren't pregnant. So I'd say her daughter is definitely her little miracle that saved her life!!

It's almost coming up on a year since I was in a minor car accident with the kiddos. The backseat wasn't touched at all so they didn't have a scratch on them. And I came out without any injuries as well. But that event was the first of the "everything happens for a reason" things that have been happening to me over the past year. I had never thought that way about things before this happened but I'm sure there have been a ton of things that I could use that saying for that have happened to me throughout my life. It just became a lot more noticeable this past year.

So what is one thing that has happened to you recently that you think definitely happened for a reason? Leave me a comment and have a wonderful day!!!

Family comes first

Family is forever. Your mother, father, brothers, sisters, aunt, uncles, cousins, grandparents...all of those people who are related to you, they are your family and I feel like they should always be in your life. It shouldn't matter how far apart you all live either. With the internet and cell phones, there is no excuse that we can't all keep in contact with our family. Unlike friends who may come and go (I've got plenty of experience with this, especially recently), family is forever because with every single family member, we can mostly say that we've all known about each other from birth. Think about it, your grandparents have known you since you were born, you have known your grandparents since you were born. The same goes for your parents, aunts, uncles, etc. These are the people that know you better than anyone else in life that you'll ever meet.

I know the point I'm trying to make is easier said than done. I know that every family has their issues and problems that may never be solved. Even if a family looks perfect from the outside, unless you are in that family you have no idea what problems they may be going through. All I'm trying to say is that family needs to stick together and be there for each other. So even if you have issues in the past with some family members, there's no better time than now to just move past that and start communicating and spending time together.

As I've said on this blog many times, life is way too short so we shouldn't keep grudges against those people in our life that we need most. Recently I feel like I've been trying to hard to make some friendships work and as a result I lost one of them. I think that experience has made me realize that I think I need to focus a little more on my family. I think I'm pretty close with a lot of members of my family but there are a few that I don't talk to as often as we used to and I think it's time to change that. If I don't make a change now, I'm going to regret that later in life when it is too late. I'm not completely cutting off my friends, but I'm just going to focus more on spending time with the ones that I know will always have my back no matter what...my family!

I leave you with this quote that is completely true:

Everyone needs friends

Finding and making friends in elementary, middle, and high school is tough! But...finding and making friends as an adult is even harder. From the time I was in Kindergarten all the way until I graduated, I went to 5 different schools. And throughout those years I've had a few different people that I considered to be my best friend. When I moved from school to school, I didn't stay in touch with my best friend from the previous school. So needless to say, my best friend from high school is no longer my best friend today.

When I moved to where I'm at now a little over 3 years ago, I found a moms club and I'm so glad I did! I've met so many amazing women through this club that I would have never met without it. And I actually found one person that I thought was going to be my new best friend. We're still really good friends but we just don't get to talk or hangout as much as we used to. When we met, we both only had one child and the ironic thing is that we were both trying for baby number 2. I thought it would be pretty cool if we got pregnant at the same time and it turns out that we did! Our youngest kids are only a week or 2 apart! So now we're both busy with 2 kids, I've been working 3-4 days a week, she homeschools her oldest and we're both pretty busy with our oils businesses.

Then just recently I met another amazing women and thought that maybe she could be a new best friend. Turns out she's busier than I thought so we don't get to talk or hangout as much as I thought we would. And I totally respect that. I know that people are busy and I can't expect them to drop everything for me. It just stinks that I met these 2 people that I mentioned at this stage of my life. If I had met them years ago, before we were all busy with kids and work, then maybe I would get to hangout with them a little more now.

So maybe as an almost 28-year old mom I don't need just one best friend but a few different best friends? I think as long as I have a few people that I can talk to about anything, that I'll do just fine. Every mom needs some friends that they can go out with or have over for a ladies night in. So yes, I don't have a "person" like Meredith and Christina from Grey's Anatomy. It sure would be nice to have a "person", but I can be ok with having several "people" that I can rely on.


I don't like every part of this quote (like the part about not needing to talk for weeks), but for the most part it is true.

Big E and Little E

Recently I've been noticing a lot of differences between Big E and Little E. I've noticed differences about them before but it's really becoming a lot clearer now. For starters, Big E was born at 32 weeks (2 months early) and Little E was born at 39 weeks. So Little E did things like crawl, walk, and talk a lot sooner than Big E did.

The thing that is amazing me now is the fact that Little E is about a year and a half and he understand so much! I think he understands a lot more at this age than Big E did. I think part of that reason is because he was closer to full term than his sister was, but I also think the fact that he is around her all the time is a big part in how much he can do and understand. He can tell us when he wants more, when he is done, when he wants down, it's just amazing!!

And Big E still amazes me every day as well!! Some of the things she says I'm like, "Wow, where did she learn that?" They really are little sponges and understand more than you think!! And her memory...wow! It's crazy how much she can remember. We will go somewhere once and then not go there for a while and she can remember who we were there with before and what we did! Her memory is something I wish I could bottle up and have some for myself!!

So my question for you today, what is one thing that your son or daughter can do that amazes you? Leave me your comments and have an awesome day!

Message in a bottle

From the book "400 Writing Prompts" found at Five Below...While at the beach you decide to write a message in a bottle. What would it say? Who would you like to find it?"

I would want anyone to find it. It doesn't matter to me who finds it, as long as they read the message and pass it along. And this would be the message:

"I don't know you and you don't know me, but you are totally worth it! You can do anything you set your min to. Any goal you have, you can make it happen if yo work towards it! Don't take anything in this crazy life for granted! Life is way too short and you never know yours will end. I know we don't like to talk about that or even think about it, but it's true. Cherish the time you have on this earth. Spend it with people you love and care about. Take time to cherish the small things in life."

What would your message in a bottle say? Leave me your comments! Have a fabulous day!!

I love being a mom!

Being a parent has been one of the most rewarding experiences I've been given. I believe that any couple or individual who has the love and compassion for a child and is able to take care of a child, should have that opportunity. I'm sure that everyone reading this right now knows of at least one person or couple who has struggled with becoming pregnant naturally. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 10 percent of women in the US ages 15-44 have difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant. That's about 6.1 million women and that is a lot! To me it is just heartbreaking when I hear about people who have been struggling to get pregnant and all they desperately want to do is have a baby of their own.

So with that all being said...a few weeks ago I applied to become an egg donor. I didn't qualify to take the next steps but I'm alright with that. But I encourage others to become an egg donor if you are able. Like I said, being a mother is such an amazing feeling! Yes it can be overwhelming at times, but it's the greatest feeling in the world to have a little human being that looks up to you and relies on you for pretty much everything for the first part of their life.

My love for children is what made me to decide to go to college for teaching. I just love being around children and teaching them the things they need to know in order to be successful adults! So even though I can't make a difference in someones life by providing them a way to have a child, I still feel like I can make a difference by being a teacher. I can even help more people this way.

Have you ever donated your eggs or know of someone that did? I would love to know about your experience! Have a great day!!